Report: Popular Baby Food Brands Contain High Levels of Arsenic, Other Heavy Metals

The food safety team at Consumer Reports analyzed 50 "nationally distributed packaged foods" made for babies and toddlers to check for harmful metals, including cadmium, lead, mercury, and inorganic arsenic.

The popular baby and toddler foods tested fall into four categories: baby cereals, packaged fruits and vegetables, packaged entrées (such as a turkey and rice dinner), and packaged snacks (including cookies, crackers, puffs, snack bars, teething biscuits). They purchased three samples of each product from retailers across the country.

Consumer Reports notes that most of the products came from the largest baby food manufacturers in the U.S. — Beech-Nut and Gerber. Other brands they looked at were Baby Mum-Mum, Ella's Kitchen, Earth's Best, Parent's Choice (Walmart), Happy Baby, Sprout, and Plum Organics. The findings are alarming.

According to CR, about two-thirds of the foods (34 of the 50 products) contained "concerning levels" of at least one of the heavy metals. Consumer Reports found that 15 of the products could pose a health risk to a child eating just one serving or less per day. These products include Gerber Chicken & Rice, Beech-Nut Classics Sweet Potatoes, and Happy Baby Organics Superfood Puffs, Apple & Broccoli.

Consumer Reports says that products made with rice were the worst, because they contained "worrisome" amounts of inorganic arsensic, in addition to many that also had lead and cadmium. That being said, snack foods were found to be the most problematic "generally because of their rice content," the site states. In a recent Consumer Reports survey, 72% of parents reported that they feed their child at least one type of the snack foods CR tested.

According to Consumer Reports, exposure to these heavy metals (even in small amounts) at a young age may increase childrens' risk of health problems, including lower IQ and behavioral problems. Exposure has also been linked to autism and ADHD, per CR.

It's important to note, however, that heavy metal content in baby foods is not an imminent threat — the risks come with exposure over time, according to James Dickerson, Ph.D., and chief scientific officer at Consumer Reports. While the results of the report are certainly worrisome, parents do not need to panic if they've been feeding some of these foods to their kids. In addition, consuming the foods doesn't guarantee that a child will develop health problems, but rather may increase the risk. Whether or not health issues develop depends on more factors as well, including genetics and exposure to other sources of heavy metals, according to James.

There are ways to reduce the amount of heavy metals you and your family are exposed to, and Consumer Reports suggests these easy tips:

Limit the amount of infant rice cereal your child eats.

Choose the right rice (white basmati rice from California, India, and Pakistan, and sushi rice from the U.S. had, on averae, half as much inorganic arensic as most other rice).

Cook rice in a large amount of water, and drain it well afterward.

Limit packaged snacks (this is a good rule of thumb for healthy eating, general)!

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